Fighting Ich for awhile now

[Heligrin]

Hey guys,

I thought i was going to be able to handle this ich problem relativley easily, however, this bugger seems to now want to die!!!

So i first notcied some ich on my loaches, which i didn't immediatley respond to because school has taken over my life, but that isnt an excuse. Anyways i bought Rid-Ich+ (heard it was tolerated well by loaches) and i raised my temperature to ~85 degrees. Ive been treating my heavily planted 55G (high tech) with 25mL of RidIch every other day and performed a 30% water change in conjuction with the dosing the medicine. 3 weeks now... all the ich is gone on my other fish, but one or two spots remain on the tails of my loaches!!!! When i think its gone.. one more spot pops up. argg.

Im wondering what i should do at this point. Yesterday i did a WC and dosed 30 mL of Ridich, hoping the higher dosage is what i need. I might need to shorten the treatment intervals? My loaches seem unaffected by the medicine and have been very active.

UV sterilizer?

Suggestions?


THanks!

[Diana]

If the Rid Ich label does NOT say to turn off the light you might try the UV. and keep going with the Rid Ich.
When a medicine is light-sensitive you can be sure it will break down under a UV.

You might dose daily, instead of every other day.
At the warmer temps it looks like a couple of them are living fast enough that the alternate day (no meds) is allowing some reproduction.

[Heligrin]

Still conduct water changes or just dose?

[Diana]

Water changes that include gravel vacs will remove a lot of the fallen Ich organisms, hopefully before they breed.

[Heligrin]

Im about to give up on this Rid ICH. I wonder if the ich has become immune. What other ICH medications are good and SAFE?

[Diana]

Heat and salt will kill Ich.

However, I think that at 85* the Rid Ich is breaking down faster and the Ich is living faster so some of them are successfully breeding and re-infesting the fish.
Dose daily. You could separate the daily dose into half and dose AM and PM so there is an even more steady level of medication in the tank.